Honoring Harvey Heroes on National Good Neighbor Day

Every year on National Good Neighbor Day, we celebrate the everyday heroes who often go unrecognized: the neighbors who take time out of their busy lives to help their communities, whether they’re cleaning up a local park, leading a neighborhood block watch, or simply looking out for a neighbor in need.

We’re constantly reminded of the incredible impact a single good neighbor can have on their community. This year, in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, this is more important than ever, as neighbors turned to each for life-saving help during the storms and to ask for assistance immediately after.

Today, our Co-Founder, Sarah Leary, was in Houston meeting with residents and local public agencies who were affected by Hurricane Harvey. Neighbors are still struggling to recover from the storm, as their homes, schools, and businesses sustained severe flood damage.

One Houston good neighbor, Sue Deigaard, personally drove Sarah through her neighborhood, which was directly in the path of Hurricane Harvey. Many of the homes are uninhabitable, with piles of ruined furniture and damaged personal belongings piled in front yards.

Homes in the Woodside neighborhood that were damaged during Hurricane Harvey.

Later this morning, at a breakfast hosted by Harris County Sheriff’s Office, we met with many of the local public agencies who were the first responders during Harvey. They used Nextdoor to get critical safety information out to residents when other communication lines were unavailable. We celebrated these partners and sat down to discuss the continued recovery efforts and how technology can further help neighbors in need. We were honored to be presented with a proclamation on behalf of Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, who officially proclaimed September 28th as Nextdoor Day across the County.

Sarah meeting with members of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and other local public agencies during the Harvey Heroes breakfast.

“Because of your efforts in the face of the storm, Harris County was able to stand strong,” Francisco Sanchez Jr., Liaison to Judge Emmett, shared. “Together, we kept millions of people safe. I’m hopeful that the lessons learned will inspire a national dialogue on how public safety officials can leverage the willingness and innovation of tech leaders like Nextdoor to build a more resilient and safer nation, one neighborhood at a time.”

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Sarah meeting with constables from the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office.

Shortly after, Sarah headed to the Houston Food Bank to help put together packages of food, toiletries, and first aid with the Lady Texans for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.

We were honored to spend National Good Neighbor Day with the neighbors and public agencies in Houston who are doing so much to help each other recover from one of the greatest natural disasters in our country’s history. We’re humbled that Nextdoor played a small role to help both neighbors and public agencies stay safe and connected before, during, and after Harvey made landfall.

From all of us at Nextdoor, happy National Good Neighbor Day. We hope you take a moment to recognize and thank your good neighbors for all the ways they support community, all year round.